Meanwhile Javier Arce has been having some fun imagining how a comic book hero might use CartoDB to map the lairs of the world's supervillains. The 1-bit cartoon map of Supervillain's Lairs helpfully reveals the location of Yu Heixian's monkey robot army.

After centuries of European border disputes and wars The Economist has revealed a cunning plan to physically redraw the map of Europe in order to make the continent a happier and more stable place.

The plan is likely to prove controversial but the prospect of warmer weather for the UK after it is moved southwards means The Economist has my full support.